Jeremy Stoppelman Sells 30,000 Shares of Yelp (NYSE:YELP) Stock

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) CEO Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total value of $854,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 756,458 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,543,923.84. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Jeremy Stoppelman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 20th, Jeremy Stoppelman sold 30,000 shares of Yelp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.07, for a total value of $842,100.00.

Yelp Price Performance

Shares of YELP stock traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $28.05. The company had a trading volume of 1,139,734 shares, compared to its average volume of 937,919. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.73 and a 200 day moving average of $31.55. The firm has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.55. Yelp Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.29 and a 1-year high of $41.72.

Yelp (NYSE:YELP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The local business review company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $376.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $368.39 million. Yelp had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 20.33%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Yelp Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Yelp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Yelp in a report on Friday, January 9th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Yelp from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Yelp from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $33.00 target price on shares of Yelp in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Yelp presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $31.29.

Institutional Trading of Yelp

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Yelp by 157.8% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 252,564 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $9,352,000 after buying an additional 154,612 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Yelp by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 76,376 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $2,828,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yelp by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 208,551 shares of the local business review company’s stock worth $7,723,000 after acquiring an additional 5,210 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Yelp by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 39,377 shares of the local business review company’s stock valued at $1,458,000 after acquiring an additional 7,053 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Yelp in the 1st quarter valued at about $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.11% of the company’s stock.

About Yelp

Yelp is a digital platform that connects consumers with local businesses through user-generated reviews, ratings and multimedia content. The company’s flagship offerings include the Yelp website and mobile applications for iOS and Android, where users can search for and discover restaurants, shops, service providers and other points of interest. In addition to crowd-sourced reviews and photographs, Yelp provides business profile pages featuring hours, contact information, menus and direct messaging capabilities.

Yelp generates revenue primarily through advertising services sold to small and medium-sized enterprises.